Re-Read: Prince Caspian

One of my goals for 2013 is to make more time for re-reads of my beloved favourites, in which case I thought this year would be the perfect opportunity to rediscover the wonderful 'Land of Narnia'. After finishing which was a long and pretty intense novel I decided to lighten up my reading again so I reached for Prince Caspian by C S Lewis the fourth instalment of The Chronicles of Narnia series.



Prince Caspian sees the return of the Pevensie siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy to Narnia. Their joy at their return is quashed though when they discover Cair Paravel destroyed and that Narnia is now ruled by the aggressive Telmarines. Parallel to this story is that of Prince Caspian the rightful heir to the Telmarine throne. Caspian has grown up being told the exciting and colourful old-tales of Narnia. When his uncle Miraz (who has assumed the throne) discovers this he sends Caspian's old nurse away and hires a professor instead. Worse is to come for poor Caspian though when his aunt gives birth to a son. Caspian is forced to flee for his life in search of the old-Narnians. His professor gives him one parting gift and that is a horn that is reputed to have been Queen Susan's horn that possesses magical powers. It is said that when blown it will summon the old Kings and Queens of Narnia. Together the Pevensies and Caspian will try to bring peace back to Narnia. Prince Caspian is a more famous instalment of The Chronicles of Narnia what with the TV and the recent big budget film adaptation. Like when I re-read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe there were no big surprises for me on re-reading this. I pretty much remembered the whole story. Helped by the fact the film adaptation is pretty faithful to the original story. I found that this book had lost known of its charm for me though.




Again the main protagonists of Prince Caspian are the Pevensie siblings who are memorable, interesting, believable, and strong individual characters. Peter is still clever and caring, Susan is clever, attractive but perhaps more grating than before, Edmund has become brave, loving and wise, while Lucy is still as wonderful as before. What I noticed more on this re-read was how Susan already seems to be moving away from the other siblings. The new protagonist of Prince Caspian is of course Caspian himself. I like Caspian he is clever, kind, imaginative, and pretty brave when put to the test. He comes across as quite na ve when we first meet him which always made me think he was pretty young. In fact by the end of the book we realise he is the same age as Peter. There is also a host of new minor characters added to the cast in Prince Caspian my favourite of which is Trufflehunter the talking badger. A talking badger need I explain more?!



I am no stranger to Lewis's work. I think his writing style in The Chronicles of Narnia is simple and fun which works well for adults and children alike. Lewis has been criticised for his use of archaic language especially when it is used by his young characters, however I find the language rather charming and I feel it adds to the magically atmosphere of the book. When I first read The Chronicles of Narnia I read the books in publication order because I think for your first time nothing beats encountering 'Narnia' first through the most famous book The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. For my re-read I purposefully decided to read the series in chronological order so I could get a full idea of the detail and history Lewis put into 'Narnia' and the characters that inhabit it. It was interesting to read Prince Caspian after because that gave me an idea of the Pevensies's long and golden reign in Narnia. This knowledge helped me to understand the impact and loss they had on the land when they returned home from Narnia.



Prince Caspian is an utterly charming children's tale of magic, family, friendship and adventure. A wonderfully comforting read for my hectic week. I am eager to move on to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader next, the fifth instalment of The Chronicles of Narnia particularly as it was my favourite instalment as a child.



HAVE YOU READ PRINCE CASPIAN? HAVE YOU READ THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA?
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